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Spiders weren't always an issue for modder Cory Ferrier. Before the age of seven, they hadn't bothered him whatsoever, until an unfortunate encounter at the zoo kickstarted his condition. He's now in his late teens and although not something he'd consider 'crippling', his fear extends to similar insects like crickets and cockroaches. As he suggests, the onset of his phobia has negatively impacted his enjoyment of video games - particularly against the increasingly realistic depictions modern technology throws at him. Role-playing games are playgrounds of constant torment.Eurogamer contributor and self-confessed spider hater Richard Cobbett wrote recently about spiders in RPGs for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, pointing out how the genre has a hapless tendency to populate its dungeons and castles and keeps with aggressive tarantulas. Although purposefully playful in his tone, Richard rightly identifies the fact that these evil arachnids are often unnecessarily shoehorned into their settings - their size posing considerable challenge for some players.
For some others, however, the inclusion of spiders in any setting - as friend or foe - renders certain games completely unplayable. ""It depends on the game," explains arachnophobic Ferrier. "If it's first-person, giant spiders in your face, that sort of thing, I can't play it. [The giant] spiders in Skyrim pretty much stopped me from playing. And if a game doesn't have decent modding tools it's doubly hard. Take Metro: Last Light - here, spiders will be jumping off the ceilings and, no, I can't even touch that."
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